LAKEPORT — John Tanti walked into the Anchorage Inn on a hot July day in 1976 and asked if there were any vacant rooms. When the managers told him there weren”t, he decided on the spot to buy the waterfront motel for $335,000.

“When I walked in there, I felt that it was my place,” Tanti said.

Thirty-five years and several owners later, the Lakeport-based motel has been foreclosed upon. There is still a welcome sign over the locked sliding-glass door leading to the front desk. One supply closet door still hangs open. But the rooms are empty, the beachfront lagoon is deserted and the motel is closed.

The motel, which is one left turn off of Main Street in Lakeport, was built in 1963, according to Lake County records. During his 12-year tenure as manager of the Anchorage Inn, Tanti remembers the motel as an attraction that charmed several new residents into Lake County.

“I could name five people who came to the Anchorage Inn and liked it so much they decided to buy homes here,” Tanti said.

Tanti bought The Wharf Master”s Inn in Point Arena in 1992 and sold the Anchorage Inn in 2000 because he found it difficult to manage two businesses at the same time. The motel was sold again in 2007, according to realtor Howard Matthews, president of National Hotel and Motel Brokers.

The couple operating the Anchorage Inn at the time of foreclosure were skilled, but they purchased the motel at a time where property prices were extremely high, Matthews said.

In addition, revenue for resorts in California is currently low, he said.

“Everything I”m doing, the income is half of what it was,” Matthews said.

The most recent operators of the Anchorage Inn could not be contacted.

Some resorts in Lake County have maintained a steady income in spite of the depressed market, however.

The Indian Beach Resort in Clearlake Oaks, co-owned by cousins Ken Taddie and Anthony Benvento has provided it”s owners with enough money to make ends meet, Taddie said.

Taddie bought the resort with Benvento in 2004 for close to a $1 million, and attributes his success to excellent customer service.

“We just spoil the customers,” he said.

Though it is difficult some days to put a smile on and be friendly to every guest, Taddie still loves managing a resort, he said.

“I think it has a lot to do with living a lifelong dream,” Taddie said. “It”s pretty neat to wake up every morning and take a look at the beautiful lake,”

The Anchorage Inn is currently unoccupied, but John Tanti said that he has an interest in seeing the place open again.